A couple more features have been revealed in addition to google street view in the latest firmware 2.2 beta.

It has all become clear. Apples rejected the awesome app Podcaster under the premise that "... Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes," forcing Podcaster distribution via Cydia instead of the AppStore. Turns out that might not be the full story.

Evidentally Apple has included the buttons in the latest build of firmware 2.2 to "Get More Episodes" hinting that firmware 2.2 will be able to subscribe to Podcasts without having to connect to iTunes. It is easy to make the assumption that you would also be able to download new Podcasts directly from the iPhone. Both of those are features previously unavailble on the iPhone and first made possible with Podcaster. I wonder if Apple took a look at the Podcaster source code and did a copy here and a paste there for their new feature.

Another new feature (or annoyance) in firmware 2.2 is a nice little popup every time you remove an AppStore app. The popup asks you to "Please Rate the app you are deleting. This is most likely in effort to get more reviews flowing into the AppStore since the amount and frequency of AppStore reviews has decreased since they made purchasing mandatory for reviewing AppStore apps.

The problem with this new little popup is that the thinking behind it is just flawed. If someone is deleting an app do you think they liked it? If you thought and app was awesome would you delete it from your phone? I think not. If this feature goes live with the public release of firmware 2.2 it will undoubtedly create an unfair bias of negative app reviews.